Tampa Bay Times photojournalist John Pendygraft
BY EMILY WEHUNT
NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – It was a slow Saturday afternoon at the Tampa Bay Times. Photojournalist John Pendygraft, was editing a video at his cubicle. Suddenly, a text alert went off on his cell phone.
Within seconds, he was up from his desk. Carefully but swiftly, he gathered his belongings and headed out the door.
“One of the biggest mistakes reporters can make is running out of the building before making sure they have everything,” said Pendygraft.
A minivan had run into an apartment complex’s guard gate. Although he made it to the scene quickly and snapped some photographs, there was nothing newsworthy about the accident. You never know what you will find until you get there, he said.
Pendygraft, 43, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. During his college years, he was the photo editor for the student newspaper, the Daily Texan, and worked at KLRU-TV as a production assistant for “Austin City Limits,” the popular music performance program.
Although Pendygraft was an anthropology major, he believes the field goes hand-in-hand with journalism.
“The universal stories about human struggle are both journalism and anthropology. Good ones – if you do it right,” Pendygraft said.
In his work, he has covered natural disasters, the hardships in Third World countries and the trials of individuals. He and reporter Lane DeGregory told the story of one young woman, a prescription drug addict working toward recovery, in a package titled “If I Die Young.”
After graduating from college, Pendygraft got an internship with the St. Petersburg Times. The Times didn’t have a full-time job opening so he took a job as a crisis counselor at a mental health care center in Tampa, a job he held for two years.
“I worked in the Baker Act unit,” he said. “It was an amazing, amazing experience.”
Under the Baker Act, people with possible mental problems can be involuntarily committed for up to 72 hours by police, doctors or mental health professionals.
Following that, he worked at the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate before returning to the Times in 1997.
In 1998, he began traveling for the paper. He spent a lot of time in Latin America, covering stories with reporter and good friend David Adams. The duo worked on countless stories together over a 10-year span.
“We went everywhere, from Cuban to Honduran jails, you name it,” said Pendygraft.
He also covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005.
“It was the first time I had been somewhere in America where it felt like a Third World country,” he said.
When an earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, Pendygraft was there to cover it. He documented how the Haitian people dealt with the aftermath.
“I pitched a ‘we will rebuild Haiti’ story about the Haitians who will actually rebuild Haiti. That is how it happens, after all of the big plans and promises; that is what it comes down to,” he said.
Steep budget cuts at the Times have meant less travel for Pendygraft, but he has become both a photographer and reporter for the paper.
In recent months, some photographers have left the paper and one was laid off. This has resulted in more work for those who remain.
He is working on a series called “In My Shoes” – a character study on a person with an interesting story to share. He has published one piece so far and a second is in the works. For each person, he will do a story, a photograph and a video.
Pendygraft is confident in his photography skills, and he is working to perfect his video editing. He uses Final Cut Pro – which he taught himself – to do his videos.
“Final Cut is just Legos, for the easy stuff. I can put something together quickly, but will edit it for a long time,” he said.
Pendygraft lives in Gulfport with his wife, reporter Letitia Stein, 34, and their 2-year-old daughter, Isadora. They met at the paper in 2004 and married in 2007.
Pendygraft handled the courtship the same way he tackles an assignment – with focused energy.
“We meet at the paper, and I stalked her,” he said. “Only because I could tell we had something.”